


Poor Unfortunate Souls

by Welsh_Woman



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Mermaids, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, M/M, Mystery and Secrets, Panic Attacks, Pining Derek, Stiles is a Sea Witch
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-19 04:39:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9419138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welsh_Woman/pseuds/Welsh_Woman
Summary: Derek has been fighting off a strange yearning to see the Land Above that finally sends him to the lair of Stiles, the sea witch, an Aquid that may know more than what he's telling...





	1. The Meeting Place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Emela](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emela/gifts).



> This originally started as a birthday present for my mermaid princess, [pale-silver-comb](http://pale-silver-comb.tumblr.com/), and then grew too big for its pond. 
> 
> I'm posting it here as well because I know some people have an easier time reading on AO3 than Tumblr, and I wanted to make sure that people enjoy my little brain babies!
> 
> Love ya, [pale-silver-comb](http://pale-silver-comb.tumblr.com/)! I hope you enjoy this story!

“I don’t like this idea…”

“You don’t like  _anything_  exciting, Isaac!”

“That’s not true! I just don’t like things that could possibly end in my  _death_!”

“We’re not going to _die_ , you big baby!”

“You say that now, but when we’re being snacked on by a killer whale, I’m going to make sure Poseidon knows  _you’re_  to blame!”

Derek tunes out the squabbling going on behind him as he swims past the boulder that Danny told him about, making a note to tell the merman that the rock looks more like a manta ray than a dolphin. Isaac and Erica had been fighting for the better part of a league… almost as soon as Isaac had figured out where they were going.

“ _ **Thetia’s Waves**_! Derek! Will you  _please_  tell Isaac  _we’re not going to die_!”

See, it’s moments like this that prove why Boyd is his favorite; he’s just been swimming silently by Derek’s side, as quiet as a current, instead of letting every crab and crustacean know what they are doing.

“Isaac, we’re not going to die. You have no reason to complain, anyway. I didn’t even invite you in the  _first place_ -”

“Like we’re going to let you meet up with a sea witch all on your own.” There’s a scuff behind him and the feeling of someone flicking at his fins. “The Queen would feed us to a shark herself!”

Derek considers reevaluating how much he likes Boyd when the merman decides  _now_  would be a good time to speak. “Erica has a point. Although losing you as a friend is a close second.”

Derek huffs and playfully pushes at Boyd’s shoulder, snorting when the Mer pretends to fall to the seabed below him. “You would just be devastated you no longer had an in to the Palace gardens.”

Boyd shrugs and doesn’t deny the claim, which just leads to a mock-fight that lasts for a good while before Erica’s voice cuts through their play like a dolphin through the waves.

“I think we’re here.”

Twisting to get a better view, Derek looks over the cave and tries to figure out what about it makes him move closer to his friends; it looks like nearly every other cave he’s seen, the same kelp and seaweed tangling up the entrance, but there is also this sense of Other about it that makes Derek hesitate for the first time since he decided to go through with his idea.

“I really don’t like this…”

“It’s a little late to be having cold fins, Merman.”

The voice does not sound deep, nor is it threatening, but it still causes a shiver to travel the length of Derek’s tail even before the owner of the voice decides to make themself known.

The sea witch looks like he can’t be a summer or two older than Derek’s younger sister. His inky tentacles flow over the rocks like a wave over the sand and draw attention to the sea witch’s pale skin, only a few spots of color here and there that Derek can see.

He also has eyes the color of a grouper’s spots, but they seem to shine like the coins that Derek had found on a Human’s ship that had sunk close to his home. Derek still has a few of the coins and he’s tempted to bring them here to see which one is brighter, the coins or the sea witch’s eyes. 

It takes a few moments of the sea witch simply looking at the lot of them before Derek remembers his manners and clears his throat to get the sea witch’s full attention.

“Calm currents and good tidings to you. I am Derek and these are my friends, Isaac, Erica, and Boyd.” Derek points to each of them in turn, biting back a smile when Erica gives the sea witch a flirty grin and wave that have him blinking at her. “I have come to ask a favor of you.”

“And them?” The sea witch asks with a careless wave of his hand, something that makes Isaac flinch from where he’s swimming behind Erica.

“Apparently, they’re my bodyguards… reluctantly, in some cases.”

The sea witch snorts at that, giving the lot of them one more once over before turning back to Derek, a flurry of expressions flying across his face before it settles into a blank indifference. “And what makes you think I will grant this favor you ask of?”

Derek swallows hard at the question, hoping that the sea witch would have listened to his request before denying him, or making him reveal who he was as a way to bargain. Seems like that isn’t the case and Derek takes comfort from whoever brushes against his shoulder as he straightens himself before speaking.

“I have the power to grant any number of requests you ask for in payment, sea witch, whether it be of more land to call your own or a Mer to be apprenticed to your teachings.” Someone makes a noise at that, whether in agreeance or sympathy at the thought of someone being asked to live out here, Derek isn’t sure. He instead focuses on not looking away from the amber eyes boring into him as he continues, “Name anything and it shall be yours.”

“A high claim, even for the Crown Prince to make.” The sea witch ignores the gasps from Derek’s friends, although he is unsure of where their shock is coming from; who else could make such a claim as the one that Derek had? They quiet almost immediately, however, when the sea witch swims forward, his tentacles shifting slightly as he moves. “What could possibly be so important that you would promise so much?”

“I… I want to go to the Land Above.” There is absolute silence from his friends now, nothing but the rhythm of their tails cutting through the water and Derek isn’t going to let that bother him as he tries to explain.

“It’s something… something that I have always…” Derek rubs at his chest, feeling the phantom of something as he pushes to find the words that will convince the sea witch to help him. “It’s like this feeling… Like an ache that won’t go away… It’s an-”

“An open wound?” The sea witch’s voice is soft and full of understanding, something that makes Derek look back up at the Aquid. He’s a little startled that he’s closer than before and he has an expression on his face that somehow makes Derek want to hold him…

He doesn’t move to do so, though, not trusting the strange urge. And he’s a little embarrassed that he even had it in the first place. Instead, he nods at the words that seem to somehow explain what he was feeling for so long and asks, “Will you help me?”

“Yes.” Even the sea witch looks surprised at how quickly he answers, but he doesn’t give Derek any time to dwell on that as he repeats, “Yes, I will help you. I… understand that feeling and the need to do something about it. So yes, I will help you with your request to go to the Land Above.”

“And what will your payment be?” Erica’s voice cuts through the tension that swept into the waters around Derek and the sea witch, causing both of them to startle and pull away from each other, a light blush dominating both of their faces.

“You know who Derek is and how much power his word holds, sea witch, so I ask again, what will your payment be?”

The strange expression from before flashes across the sea witch’s face before he gives Erica a smile to rival the one she presented him earlier. “Worry not, my fierce friend, I have no desire to harm our good Prince or ask for more than what I deserve. I will simply go ashore with him and make sure he does not run into any… unsavory People while he is visiting the Land Above.”

There is immediate disagreement behind him, but the sea witch spares them no mind as his gaze meets Derek’s, the glimmer in them trapping him as easily as any Human’s net.

“That is my term, Prince, my payment. If you choose to agree, only you may follow me into my home. There are protections in place if your…  _bodyguards_  try to enter. If you do not agree, you may leave here without worry and unharmed, with a tale to tell your friends of your meeting with the monstrous sea witch.”

With a slip of a smile at the end of his sentence, the sea witch turns and enters his home, not even giving a second look back to see if Derek would follow.

Derek takes a moment to look at his friends: Isaac, of course, is still terrified by all of this and immediately shakes his head when he notices Derek’s gaze. Erica is hesitant; no doubt there is more she wanted to ask (demand) of the sea witch, and Boyd simply gazes back, letting Derek make his own decision with a soft “Be careful.”

And, in the end, was there really any other choice?

Before he can lose his nerve, can examine how that smile from the sea witch tugged at something inside him, Derek spins around and enters the cave that had so unsettled him before, hoping that Isaac’s call of his name would not be the last sound he heard.


	2. The Sea Witch's Cave

Derek isn’t really sure what he will find when he enters the sea witch’s lair: bones, maybe, or a few odds and ends hidden in darkened corners that made nerves prickle and tails twitch in fear.

What he sees instead are brightly colored baubles and trinkets, all covered by sunlight, streaming through a hole in the upper reaches of the cave. The trinkets include some of those Human coins that Derek had compared the sea witch’s eyes to, which makes him blush and quickly look away when he spots them.

Instead he focuses on the fact that the sea witch didn’t go very far into the cave, and that he looks a little surprised to see that Derek had even followed him the first place.

There is a suspended moment of silence as they simply stare at each other, the sea witch in surprise

“This isn’t really what I expected…”

His words seem to shake off whatever bit of quiet that had overtaken the sea witch. The Aquid’s lips stretch into a smirk that seemed to say that he isn’t surprised by Derek’s comment. “And what were you expecting? A cauldron of billowing fluids? Pieces of various Aquids, so dismembered you couldn’t tell if they were mammal, fish or Mer?”

Bristling at the feeling of being mocked, Derek glares at the witch and snaps, “Are you really all that surprised? If you knew who I am before I even opened my mouth, then you must know all the tales they tell of the witch that stalks through the seas with all the foreboding presence of a killer whale on the hunt, stealing into pods and coral reefs, feasting on anything that might cross his path!”

“Oh, is  _that_ what they say?” It’s said with a hint of derision, a sneer that hints Derek is simple for believing such stories, and his earlier fear has disappeared under a nice armor of frustration.

Even so, he’s tries to keep his voice level when he responds, “I’m still here, aren’t I? I still followed you into this cave.”

“Yes, you’re still here.” There seems to be a bit of grudging admiration, perhaps even some  _longing_  in the sea witch’s voice, but any sympathy that Derek was beginning to feel is immediately killed when he adds, “In the minds of your fellow Mer, that would make you very stupid, or even suicidal.”

“Did you accept my request just to insult me or-”

The sea witch throws his hands up in a placating gesture, his smirk disappearing as a look of genuine concern covers his face, body shifting as if he wants to dive forward and keep Derek from leaving.

“Apologies. I have lived alone so long that I forget sometimes that my humor isn’t as funny as I would like to think, or that other Aquids would be more inclined to swim as far away from me as possible if I keep on so. My father-” The sea witch’s face twitches, before he’s hitching a smile into place and waving his hands as if he could make the tension vanish with a simple slashing motion. “My name is Stiles, by the way. You keep calling me ‘sea witch’ and I forgot you… don’t know my name.”

The sea witch- _Stiles_ ’-tone does something funny at the end of that sentence, but Derek isn’t sure how to figure out what’s bothering him, so he just ignores it for now. “You know that I am called Derek and while you may also know that I am the Crown Prince, I would prefer it if you called me by my given name.”

“Derek. It’s… nice to meet you.”

There it is again, that strange bit of longing in the sea- in  _Stiles_ \- voice that has Derek moving away, trying to put some distance between himself and the strange Aquid that makes Derek want to hold and comfort him after only a few waves of meeting him.

Derek is so focused on trying to rationalize these strange feelings that he nearly runs into some of Stiles’ collection, his hands flying out to steady it despite the fact that it barely moved from his accidental brush. It does, however, give him a moment to get his thoughts in order before he takes a closer look at just what exactly it is that he’s holding:

It’s a merman statue, but there’s something…  _off_  about it.

It may be the way that the light is streaming into the cave, or the general sense of Other that is part of this whole place. The sea witch is completely still beside him, but Derek almost immediately releases the statue when he realizes that the oddness he feels is from the sense that the statue almost seems to be  _breathing_.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-” He is almost completely ignored ~~as~~ when he moves away. Stiles immediately moves to where he was floating previously, hands skipping over the statue to check for any damages. 

“Did I-? I can replace-”

“This isn’t something you can just  _replace_ , merman!” The odd, teasing quality of Stiles’ voice is gone now, replaced by an anger as cold as a winter’s wave, and Derek pulls back in surprise. A quick thought of leaving, of just forgetting this whole thing, enters his mind even as Stiles takes a deep breath in an effort to quell his fury.

“This is… this is very important to me,” Stiles whispers, looking into the statue’s eyes as if they could tell him the secrets of the entire sea, and they by all rights  _could_ ; the statue looks to be as old as Derek’s own mother, but a male with soft eyes, and the body of the merman seems almost…  _protective_ , as if the sculptor had captured him in the act of pulling someone to the side.

“I am sorry, I did not mean to offend.” Derek reaches out, to offer comfort or perhaps turn Stiles around so that he may meet the sea witch’s eyes to show his remorse, he doesn’t know. He holds his hand in the waters between them for a moment before dropping it back to his side, certain that his actions at this point would be most unwelcome.

“I am truly sorry.”

A hand halts his retreat, startling him into looking back. Stiles gives him almost the same look he had given the statue; it was desperation, longing, and guilt all mixed up together and it pulled at Derek the way that the moon pulled the tides.

“No, you have no reason to apologize. I overreacted. You don’t know how important this particular… piece is to me and I should not have acted like you should have realized that. Thank you for your offer of replacement, but by Poseidon’s grace, there is no damage.”

The hand on his arm is tightening and loosening in turns, almost if Stiles is fighting the same urge that had overcome Derek earlier, and it causes a terrifying anticipation to hit Derek’s stomach, making it hard to focus on the words slipping past Stiles’ lips.

Stiles, unfortunately, takes his silence as a deterrent and removes his arm, making Derek rub at the warmth that lingers there. This also seems to upset Stiles, as he watches the movement with furrowed brows before turning sharply away again, his shoulders a tense line of disappointment.

“I- I’m not-” Derek curses his inability to be diplomatic, initially happy that there have been talks of Laura ruling instead of him when their mother steps down, but now upset that he cannot find a way to  _fix this_  and in his frustration he blurts out the one thing he really should not. “What do you want me to do? I have offended you in some way, how can I make this right? Ask it of me, and I shall give it to you.”

“I ask that you leave.”

Disappointment settles like bad kelp in Derek’s stomach. “O-of course, I shall bother you no longer. I once again apolo-”

“No, that’s not what I-” Stiles shakes his head, but he still does not face Derek as he continues, “I need time to prepare the potion to take us to the Land Above and time to… prepare  _myself_  for what we are about to do. It isn’t all a song and dance before the spell is done, you know, it takes a bit more than that.”

Stiles chuckles like he’s remembering an old joke, and Derek feels something lift a bit at the evidence that he did not totally ruin his chance for-

For what?

For his chance to see the Land Above?

Or his chance to become… friends with the sea witch?

Derek blinks as the thought takes root in his mind. A friendship with the creature that seems to be so very wrongly accused of things fills him with a strange and welcome warmth.

A sudden thought hits him and Derek swallows as he hopes that this does not ruin the tentative truce that seems to have settled between the pair of them. “If you were going to send me away because you needed time for the spell, why ask me into your home in the first place?”

This time, Stiles does turn around, and the look that he gives Derek is much like the one that he had when he greeted all of them: blank, but still slightly interested.

“I had to see if you were completely sure about your decision, that you weren’t going to run away at the first sign of trouble, that the ‘terrifying sea witch’ won’t send you racing for your pod as soon as you saw him.”

Derek tilts his chin a bit, a slight smile tugging at his lips. “I thought you said that was stupid or suicidal…?”

Stiles answers Derek’s smile with a smirk of his own. “Bravery can be considered stupidity, it all depends if what you do ends up being a success or a failure.”

“And this will be a success, then?”

Stiles studies Derek for a few moments, making that strange tension from earlier return as he tries to stay as still as he possibly can under that intense gaze.

“We’ll just have to wait and see, now won’t we?”

With that, Stiles swims into the farthest reaches of his cave, leaving Derek to stare after him in confusion for a few minutes as he tries to come to terms with everything that has happened, before turning and swimming back to where his friends are no doubt still waiting for him.

Neptune knows what he’s going to tell them…


	3. With Friends Like These...

In the end, Derek just tells his friends everything. The only parts that he keeps to himself are the moments where he felt like he needed to comfort the sea witch and that part of him felt compelled to stay and find a way to make Stiles smile…

Their reactions tell him this was the right choice, even though part of him feels happy that they care so much-

“This is the stupidest idea I have ever heard, including that time Isaac thought he could hide a  _squid ink tattoo_  from us!”

-despite how loudly they were going about it.

“Will you keep your voice down?!?” Derek hisses. He looks around as they swim past the borders of Pacifica, feeling as if there are a thousand eyes on them, no matter how obvious it is that not a single Mer is paying them any mind. “Or do you want my  _mother_  to know what’s going on before I even have time to think about it?”

“Maybe she  _should_  find out!” is Erica’s rebuttal. She stops in her tracks and turns to level Derek with a dark look that has Isaac almost immediately moving away. Boyd heaves a sigh and stops as well, arms folded across his chest. “You’re talking about going to the Land Above with a  _sea witch_ , Derek! Ignoring that he let you free from his cave, there’s a reason that he was banished to that remote rock  _in the first place_!”

“And what reason  _is_  that? Have we ever found out? Or have we just accepted the rumors that we’ve heard without even checking to see if there was any truth in them?”

“What  _has_  that sea witch been filling your head with, huh? You’ve been acting off for waves now, and it’s only been worse by the day… Maybe we should go to Deaton-”

“ _ **NO**_!” Derek’s vehement denial causes Isaac to dive for the nearest open pod-dome. Boyd gives him a look that says he’s as surprised as Derek at the sudden outburst, Erica’s face twists into a mixture of frustrated annoyance as Derek tries to salvage the situation.

“I mean no, I don’t need to see Deaton.” The fact that his denial even gets a raised brow from  _Boyd_  has Derek worrying about how to convince them that they don’t need to drag him to the Cymur as soon as they can, but Derek isn’t sure how to explain to them how he feels without sounding like a storm-addled Mer that needs to be locked up for his own safety and the safety of everyone around him.

After a few waves of trying desperately to come up with a reason that won’t end up with him in front of either his Mother or Deaton, Derek gives up and just starts swimming home. He throws a frustrated “Do whatever you want, I don’t care” over his shoulder.

Completely wrapped up in his own thoughts, it takes Derek a few moments before he realizes that he’s being followed, but that is nothing compared to the shock that it is  _Boyd_  who falls into flickers beside him.

“She’s just worried, you know.”

“I know.”

“You have been acting off, for a while now, and she  _has_  talked about making you see Deaton before this.”

“Not to me, though.” It’s a little disheartening, that his friends thought that they had to go behind his back like this, but given how he reacted to Deaton’s name, Derek doesn’t really blame them; he can’t explain it the same way he can’t explain how he trusts Stiles so completely.

It’s a gut feeling, a sense that there is something more there than what others can easily see… The feeling draws him to Stiles and pushes him away with Deaton, completely at odds with each other, despite being the only two that have ever made him feel this way.

“Derek…” Boyd pauses, his earlier ease gone in the wake of a serious expression that has Derek halting as well, looking over to the younger Mer as he waits for him to finish his thought. “This sea witch… he didn’t hurt you, even though we’ve heard nothing but horror tales whenever he was mentioned, so I’m inclined to trust that he will not intentionally cause you harm. It’s not that part that worries us… Why won’t you tell us what happened in the cave? Something  _did_  happen, despite you saying otherwise, and I can’t figure out why you’re not telling us everything. You’ve never hidden anything from us before.”

“Maybe I just want to keep something as just _mine_ for once, and not share it with every fish that happens to swim by!” Derek feels bad for snapping almost as soon as Boyd ducks his head at his tone, but it’s hard to not be a little irritated when he feels like he’s being pulled in several different directions at once.

“Look, haven’t you ever… felt like there was something you needed to keep to yourself, no matter how much other people wanted to know? That telling them might make it… I don’t know, mean less or take away something?”

Boyd is quiet for a little while after that, only letting the sounds of the water and Mer surrounding them fill the air as they resume their swim, and Derek is grateful for the chance to try to sort out what exactly he wants to do concerning Stiles’ effect on him…

“I think-” There is a hesitance to Boyd’s voice that Derek hates, knowing that he put it there, so he waits for his fellow Mer to speak instead of trying to hurry him up. “I think I understand what you mean and why you are keeping silent on this, but you  _do_  realize why we are so worried, right? We don’t know anything about this sea witch; even  _you_  were skeptical on whether he would help us or eat us and now you’re acting like-”

“Yeah, I understand.” The most frustrating thing about all of this is that Derek  _does_ understand, that he gets why his friends are acting so paranoid about his sudden switch in attitude and it’s only because he can’t understand it himself that makes him less annoyed. “Can you do me a favor, though? Can you trust me? Can you trust that I know what I’m doing and not telling my mother or Deaton about this until I make my decision?”

Boyd looks torn, lip caught between his teeth and head slightly dipped as he plainly has an internal struggle on whether to take Derek at his word or follow through on Erica’s threat to take all of this to Derek’s mother. There’re a few seconds before all of the tension leaves Boyd’s shoulders in one long whoosh of air.

“Fine. I’ll go along with this for now, but at the first hint of trouble, I’m getting the Queen to take care of that sea witch once and for all.”

Derek bites down on the need to defend Stiles, the desire to remind Boyd that the Aquid has a name and isn’t some sort of daemon. Instead he tries to lighten the mood with, “Wait until the first time  _Erica_  feels like there’s trouble, I wouldn’t want something to happen because you were feeling eel-bit and called for Meridians the first time Stiles oh-so-frighteningly  _greets_  you.”

“Hey!”

They fall into a play fight at that, and some of the burden that Derek was carrying lifts, as he knows that Boyd will bring the other two to his line of thinking. Isaac gets pulled along after Erica’s rather forceful personality like the moon pulls the tide.

Now, all he had to do was figure out what to tell his mother and how to excuse himself from all sea affairs for however long this potion that Stiles was making was supposed to last.

Maybe this might be a good time to rethink that plan he had on swimming away from home when he hit his seventh summer… 


	4. A Queen's Burden

Derek swims back and forth on what to tell his mother for the longest time, going from telling her the absolute truth to making something up and dealing with the fallout when he comes back from the Land Above.

She can’t have him locked up _forever_ , if she even  _does_  have him locked up, can she?

Derek shakes his head as he makes his way through his home, the coral’s colors soothing his frayed nerves as easily as they always have. He tries to imagine how his mother will feel when he tells her he’s going to see a rumored cannibalistic sea witch to get a potion that will take him to the Land Above…

Derek has always thought of his mother as the strongest person he would ever know growing up. He believed that she could face any adversary and come out on top, that there wasn’t anything she didn’t know, and that the seas that made up their home would be safe as long as she ruled, which would be forever.

Now, though, now he sees grey where there once were ebony locks that matched his own, he hears her talking more and more often with Deaton with a sad expression that she tries to hide, and it seems like she’s almost looking forward to the day that she passes her crown off to one of her children.

Telling her that he is going to possibly throw his life away on the strange feeling of missing something, something that can be only found in the Land Above, that has been plaguing him for the past few seasons isn’t something that Derek is looking forward to, but he hates the idea of lying to her even  _more_ …

He can’t think of it anymore now, because his mind and fins have brought him to the hallway outside of the throne room and he can already see a familiar form swimming inside.

Derek watches his mother from the entrance to the throne room. There’s a weight on her shoulders that she seems to only ever carry whenever she’s alone, and he decides right then and there that he can’t tell her the complete truth about his desire to see the Land Above, about the deal he has with Stiles.

Why add more troubles to the last person that he would ever want to hurt?

He must linger too long as he makes his decision, because it’s only between the flick of a fin and the next that his mother spots him and calls out, “Oh! Derek! How long have you been floating there? Come in, my little guppy, I always have time for you!” 

Derek obediently swims up to his mother, cheeks heated at the familiar nickname that he carried ever since he was born, glad that neither Laura or Cora were around to hear it. “’M not a guppy.”

“Oh, sweetheart, you’ll  _always_  be my little guppy!” His mother’s smiles seem to be missing her eyes lately, the sadness in them never seeming to lessen, and it  _hurts_  to see that so much that Derek can’t help but to rush forward and wrap his mother up in an embrace.

“Derek!” His mother sounds shocked, which makes Derek feel even  _worse_  about all of this; when was the last time he hugged his mother? When he showed her any kind of affection?

“Well, I’m not going to complain, but I must say I am curious as to what brought-”

“I’m going to be going away for a little while.”

His mother freezes, but then gently lays her hands on his shoulder and atop his head, leaning her forehead against his brow with a soft sigh. 

He nearly swims a full head higher than her, now. When had that happened? 

“How long will you be gone?”

 “I don’t know.”

Her fingers tense and then loosen, another sigh slipping past her lips as she moves to embrace him more fully, her next words sounding like they carry all of the sadness that bends her form.

“Will you come back?”

“Of course!” This time,  _Derek_  is the one that tightens his grip, makes it so that his hold conveys all the things he cannot say.

Even though he is happy that there have been talks of Laura leading instead of him, the thought of never being able to come home… it’s  _terrifying_ and heartbreaking in equal measure and he  _needs_  to make his mother understand that, but all the words rush to get out of his throat and he can barely manage, “I just… I just need…”

“It’s alright, it’s okay, my little guppy….” His mother’s fingers soothe through his hair and he can’t be sure if it’s the water or her intentions, but he’s gently rocked where they swim, and it makes the panic that started to take over ease until he can breathe easy once more.

“I know that I’ve told you this so many times before, it’s just that there are moments when I still see you as my little baby, my little miracle. We were so scared that you wouldn’t make it, that you would… So, there are times when I just… I just worry, that’s all. You sounded so very serious, I was… I was just worried.”

“I’ll come back, Mommy.” Derek hasn’t called his mother that in years, but it feels like the right thing, here in this moment, and he squeezes her tight one last time before pulling away. “I promise, I’ll come back.”

Talia Hale, ruler of Pacifica and Mistress of the Ocean, cups his face in her hands and looks almost desperate to believe his words even as she tries to smile. “I know. Be safe, my little guppy, my miracle.”

Derek nods, throat too tight to speak, and swims out of the throne room. 

Why does it feel like, despite what he just said, this is the last time he will see his mother? 

Shaking off the foreboding feeling, Derek straightens his shoulders and makes his way to his room, fighting the urge to turn around and look at his mother just one more time.


	5. Making Plans

He barely makes it back into his room before he’s keeled over by Erica, Boyd and Isaac, their enthusiasm nearly cracking the reflecting shard that Derek found in a downed Human ship and hung on his cave wall.

“ _Well?!?_ ” Erica demands, as patient and calm as she ever is, her nails digging into his shoulders as it seems she’s seconds away from shaking him. “What did your mother say? Did she make you see how crazy this all was? Are you  _finally_  going to-”

“She is allowing me to go, the only stipulation she had was that I return.” Derek can’t help but feel a little smug at the sour look that overtakes Erica’s face as she crosses her arms in front of her chest.

“You must not have told her everything, then.”

Derek doesn’t bother to dignify that with an answer as he turns to take in his cave, wondering if there was anything he should take with him, but it turns out that he doesn’t really need to.

Erica practically  _growls_  at him. “Derek! You didn’t tell your mother about the sea witch, did you? Of all the  _Poseidon damned_ ,  **foolish**  things we have done, this has to be  ** _the most_** -”

“ **Erica**!” Boyd’s voice is as powerful as a tsunami wave as he tugs on his girlfriend’s fins, making her squawk and level him with the same glare she was using on Derek only a few moments ago. “Derek knows what he’s doing, he’s not some youngling that need to be reprimanded, so just give the guy a wave, alright?”

Erica huffs at him, but thankfully refrains from yelling at Derek more, so he goes back to looking over his cave and tries to see it as a Human might…

It’s a smoothed over enclave, the water and sculptures making the walls almost reflective in their shine, with a rather large gathering of kelp as his bed. There are a few carvings in his walls depicting his family and an outcropping as a shelf, with the reflective shard as the only thing that he really picked in the room.

“Do you think that I should bring anything with me when I go to the Land Above?”

His question seems to have interrupted a discussion going on behind him, drawing them out of whatever debate they were having--although Derek can guess what the subject was--to give his room the same kind of once over that Derek had a few moments prior.

“I… don’t know?” Isaac offers, frowning at the reflecting shard like it was keeping the answer from him. “Do you know if we even have anything that a Human would need? Did the sea witch even say that you needed to bring anything?”

Once more biting off the need to tell someone that Stiles had a name (half because it felt like a secret that he wasn’t supposed to share and half because Derek knew that they wouldn’t use it anyway), Derek shrugs and says, “He didn’t say that there was anything I needed to bring, but I didn’t ask him either.”

“Probably will just magic up everything that you need when asked about it and make it seem like it was his idea the whole time,” Erica mutters, which earns her a sigh from Boyd that has her sticking out her tongue in response.

Derek ignores her and settles into his bed with a sigh, trying to imagine what it would be like to sleep somewhere else than this cave for however long Stiles manages to make him Human.

“I want you guys to watch over my mother while I’m gone.”

Once more, Derek’s words draw his friend’s attention, and once more, they all look over at him when he speaks, only this time, their expressions are ones of curiosity and worry instead of study.

“We always come by to see your mother and sisters, even on the days that you’ve been gone on those meets with the Aquids that migrate through here.” Isaac looks over at the other two for agreement before turning back to Derek with a frown on his face as he continues, “Did you really think we would stop because you were gone?”

“No, no, that’s not it.” Derek shakes his head as he remembers the feeling he had when he left the throne room, the thought that it was the last time that he would ever see his mother, and he tries to find the words to explain how very important this is without sounding like an utter mollusk-head. “It’s just that… she seems to be under a lot of stress lately, training Laura to inherit the crown, and I just don’t want her to worry too much while I’m gone and-”

“Hey,” It’s Erica this time, her voice surprisingly soft as she moves forward to wrap Derek up in a hug. “I’m not going to say that I’m sorry, because I still think that this whole thing is a bad idea, but I  _will_  say that you will  _not_  have to worry about the Queen. We’ll keep a close eye on her and make sure she smiles at least three times a day!”

Derek chuckles and reaches out to draw Isaac into the hug, while Erica reels Boyd in, his heavy sigh not covering the smile that tugs at his lips. They stay like that for a little while, soaking in the feeling of safety these embraces always seem to carry with them.

“Who knows? Maybe you’ll meet a pretty Human up there and the sea witch will finally be good for something and give them fins!”

 ** _Stiles_** **is a very pretty Aquid** , Derek’s mind supplies at Erica’s words, making him glad his face is pressed into Boyd’s shoulder, it is almost impossible to see his blush.

However, since it’s Boyd shoulder that he’s hiding in, Boyd sees his blush and thankfully, or _un_ thankfully depending on the point of view, just raises a judgmental brow at him and doesn’t say anything.

While Derek is glad that he doesn’t bring attention to Derek’s reaction, Boyd’s silence still speaks for itself and it takes longer than he’d like to get his blush under control.

* * *

 

The next few days are a mixture of excitement and worry that have members of his family asking him if he’s alright more than once. 

Well, it’s more that Laura asks him if he has crabs pinching his fins and Cora tells him he needs to stop swimming to Coral Rock, the sea club that is just past the kelp forest, if he’s going to come home all jittery from jellyfish juice.

His mother, predictably, says nothing and just stares at him sadly while Deaton frowns at her elbow.

It really isn’t helping Derek try to come to terms with the fact that he’s going to be leaving them for an undetermined amount of time, and that he’s only told his mother and left it up to her to tell the rest of them.

That, at least, is something that he can fix.

“You’re going to do  _what_?” Laura screeches, handing off the scroll that an aide had brought into her room at the beginning of this discussion. The aide hightails it out of there as soon as Laura opens her mouth. . “Are you completely and utterly  _eel-touched_?”

“Laura…”

“Don’t you ‘Laura’ me, Derek!” Her voice snaps through the water like a dolphin, making Derek fight off an instinctive flinch at the feeling of upsetting yet  _another_  member of his family. “You know that these next few days are important for our inauguration as Crown Prince and Princess, you can’t just decide to run off on some sort of whim!”

“It’s not ‘some sort of whim’, Laura!” Derek snaps back, his tension of the past few days making his words harsher than he intended and causing Laura to blink at him in shock. “I’ve spent the past few tides trying to figure out why no one will tell me what it is that I’m missing, and I need to take some time to get used to the fact that everyone is hiding something from me!”

Laura’s expression stays frozen for a few seconds before transforming into almost the exact same one that his mother had when he told her the same thing and before he can demand to know  _what in Poseidon’s deep depths is going on_ , Laura swims forward and wraps her arms around him in a grip so tight that Derek is having a hard time making his gills work.

“Don’t do this, Derek.” The anger in her voice has slipped into terror and Derek immediately gives up all attempts to break free. “Whatever it is that you’re planning,  _please_  don’t do this.”

“Laura, what-”

“I know you, Derek. You’re not just ‘going for a swim around the kelp forest’, you’ve got a plan and I  _know_  that it’s going to take you away from us. Don’t do this,  _please_.”

“Then tell me what is going on!” Derek finally pulls away from Laura’s grasp. Her eyes are filled with tears when he looks at her and that just makes this whole thing all that more frustrating. “If me leaving has such dire consequences, if whatever it is that you all are hiding is so dangerous, then _just let me know_  and we can avoid all of this!”

“I ** _can’t_**!” Laura seems as frustrated as Derek about all of this, and that quells most of the anger that he’s feeling, but not all of it even as she continues, “By all the Oceans and Seas, I  **hate**  that I can’t talk to you about this! I can see how all of this is frustrating for you and how much you want to know what is being kept from you, but I  _can’t_ -”

She slams her mouth closed, a muffled scream trying to make it past her lips before she throws herself on the bed in the corner, her shoulders heaving as she tries to catch her breath.

All Derek can do is stare at her in shock, trying to come to terms with the fact that it isn’t that no one will tell him what is going on, it’s that they _can’t_.

“Is the way everyone is so scared of me leaving for any length of time part of all of this?”

Laura gives him a helpless look, her hands waving in a way that seems to convey her defeat at not being able to help him, and Derek just nods as he tries to think of something he can ask without hitting a shell bed.

“Does this have anything to do with the sea witch?”

The response is almost instantaneous; Laura lurches up from her bed and wraps her arms around Derek again, a babble of ‘Don’t do this, stay away from him, this is too dangerous’ falling from her lips like rain from the skies.

 **I guess that answers that question.** Derek wraps his arms around Laura in return, trying to soothe the terror he can feel trembling her form.  **But what could Stiles have possibly done to inflict this level of fear? Is he the one responsible for this spell that keeps everyone from talking to me?**

Derek almost immediately rejects that thought as soon as he has it; Stiles seemed as upset as Derek was about hearing that he was being kept in the dark about something. Surely that was genuine and not some sort of act?

“What’s going on?”

Pulling apart, Laura and Derek turn to see Cora swimming at the entrance to Laura’s room, looking between the two of them like she’s half expecting one of them to suddenly throw squid ink on her.

“I’m… going to go away for a little while and was just saying goodbye to Laura-” Derek barely gets the sentence out before Cora is swimming into the room so fast that Derek has to swim a few strokes back to avoid getting bowled over by her.

“You can’t leave! There are far too many things that need to be done in preparation and you are not going to finagle all of your duties off on me!”

If Derek hadn’t been paying closer attention than normal to his sister, he never would have seen the way her eyes had tightened and the nervous tick of her fingers that means she’s trying to fight off claws. It would have seemed like a normal rant from her and nothing out of the ordinary.

As a matter of fact, if he truly thought about it, he could remember a few things that had always seemed off whenever he mentioned swimming outside of Pacifica’s borders, and he must have subconsciously used that as his reason for not telling anyone about his plans to see Stiles in the first place.

“Don’t worry, Cora.” Laura doesn’t really look all that comforting, given how her own tail is twitching worse than that time it got caught in a bit of broken coral. “Derek has promised that he’ll only be gone for a little while and that he’ll swim as fast as he can back home as soon as he’s done.”

“Maybe he should take some of the Guardsmer with him, just to be sure that he doesn’t slack off and make us do all the heavy swimming.” Cora’s voice is as petulant as it always is when she’s complaining about something, but her eyes are flickering over Derek’s face like she’s trying to memorize his features and it’s unnerving Derek so badly that even  _he_  is starting to flick his tail in unease.

“I don’t think Derek needs a babysitter, Cora.” Laura wraps an arm around their sister and Derek uses that moment to escape from the cave, trying to make sense of everything in he has learned in the past few waves, and just making out the last bit of Laura’s comment:

“We just have to hope that everything will be alright.”


	6. The Potion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A BRIEF WARNING!!!**
> 
> There is a short description of a panic attack in this chapter. If you feel like you would rather not read about it, it starts at " **DEREK!** " and stops at "After a wave, two..."
> 
> I hope that helps and if anyone is still hesitant, feel free to have a friend read over it for you!
> 
> Enjoy!

A slew of emotions boil in Derek’s stomach as he swims over the various corals and shale before stalling at the entrance to Stiles’ domain. He’s unsure if he should just enter or if he should wait until Stiles calls him into his home.

“Are you just going to float out there, or are you going to come in?”

Stiles’ appearance is just as surprising as the last time, only because he seems to be practically vibrating with… it seems like joy and excitement? His tentacles are twitching and flickering out like they have minds of their own, and he also seems to be fighting off some sort of grin or smile.

It makes Derek feel a little bit better, quells the roiling emotions a bit, and he sighs out a laugh as he follows the sea witch back into his house with a playful quip.

“ _Someone_  is a little eager…”

“Well, it’s been a while since I’ve been able to use my magic and most people are pretty skittish when it comes to actually following through on their requests, so by the time they make it back home, they’ve convinced themselves that they’re better off without whatever it is that made them seek me out in the first place. I usually never see them again.” Stiles shrugs as he moves towards the back of the cave.

Something tells Derek to stop at the enclave that holds all of Stiles’ trinkets, his tail flicking as he eyes the merman statue in the corner. “You’re the first person who’s actually stuck around in… three years? Huh. Has it really been that long?"

Stiles returns to where Derek has been waiting, but his joy seems to have dimmed into a strange sadness that makes Derek speak before he can really think about what he’s saying.

“Well, I don’t plan on leaving for a while yet.”

“Of course not, you still need my spell, after all!” Stiles quips, almost physically shrugging off the strange mood that had overtaken him as he shows Derek a potion in his hand with a little shake, reminding the prince of the showmers that visit the castle every now and again.

“Now, this is the potion that will give us the legs and biology of a Human, but the really tricky part is spelling it for a certain amount of time; it used to be that there was only a three-day limit on the spell and a Mer had to give up something in exchange-”

“What kind of ‘thing’ would I have to give up?” For the first time since meeting Stiles, Derek feels a twinge of anxiousness about the sea witch and wonders if he should have taken Boyd up on his offer to come with him to see Stiles.

As if sensing the change in Derek’s mood, Stiles immediately begins waving his arms in a negative gesture, his words almost tripping over themselves in their rush to get out.

“Oh no, no, no, no, no! You don’t have to give up anything with this! I was just saying that in the old days a Mer had to give up their voice, or their feet would have extreme pains, or something equally as horrible. I was just trying to brag about how I managed to fix that little problem and instead I’ve just made you uncomfortable… Poseidon damn me to the depths.”

Soothed by the fact that Stiles wasn’t trying to cause him any undue harm, Derek is once more intrigued by the bottle and the magic that he has yet to see. “Why did the Aquids have to give up pieces of themselves for this to work? How did you make it so that doesn’t need to be done?”

Stiles squints at Derek like he’s trying to see if he’s playing a trick on him, before explaining in a slow voice that grows in enthusiasm and confidence the longer Derek pays attention.

“Well, part of the reason was that some sea witches were just kelp droppings and they mutated the spell to cause the most hurt to the poor Aquid that managed to find them, and a few times it was because they didn’t have the right ingredients or the Aquid decided in the middle of the transformation that they didn’t actually want to go through with the deal.”

“Stiles…” Derek is unsure how to tell the Aquid that he’s starting to feel doubts, not because of Stiles himself, but because he’s not sure if this is the right thing to do. His conversation with his mother has left him feeling keelhauled for a few days now, finding out about the curse from Laura hadn’t helped at all, and all this information that Stiles is giving him is making him feel like he got bowled over by an undertow.

Again, it seems like Stiles can read his mind and the Aquid is swimming close to rub a soothing hand down his arm. “Hey, it’s okay. There’s a big difference between backing out completely and being a little nervous. Like I said, the potion is all brewed and all I need to do is cast the spell for the specific amount of time. I can cast it to be only for a day, to let you get used to how it feels, then you can come back another day and we can try for longer.”

“Why are you being so nice to me?” Derek doesn’t understand it; why have there been such vicious rumors about Stiles when this is what he is really like? The rumors can’t have popped from the sea bed like a startled octopus, they had to have come from  ** _somewhere_** , and it’s making his head hurt the longer he tries to make sense of it.

Stiles is no help at all, blinking at him and looking a little hurt by Derek’s question. “Um, because you’re upset? I may be a right mollusk about some things, but I- I don’t want you to fear me… Not you.  _Never_  you.”

This time, it’s Derek that’s left blinking in surprise, all that he can think to say is, “Show me the spell. Make it for only a day.”

Stiles hesitates for a second, almost as if he was going to ask Derek if he was sure, so Derek gives him what his sisters call his ‘murder face’. Stiles just rolls his eyes and laughs, which goes to show that Derek was right when he said they were being ridiculous.

“Alright, alright. On with the show, I guess…”

Stiles closes his eyes and begins to mutter under his breath, the bottle in his hands shining like an eel’s shockers and casting an unearthly glow across Stiles’ skin. While Derek on some level knows that he should be pulling away from this, should worry at the strangeness of everything and how he has no exact knowledge of what Stiles is doing, he can’t help but move closer to warmth that comes from it and stretch out his hand to see if the glow feels as strange as it looks.

It’s as soon as Derek touches Stiles hand that he realizes this might have been a bad idea, but he’s too busy feeling like something sharp and jagged hit him in the chest and he can dimly hear Stiles screaming his name to give it any more thought.

* * *

“ _Come on, Derek! Don’t be such a Sourgills_!”

“ _It’s against the rules! You don’t know what could happen! If we get caught_ -”

“ _We’re not going to get caught, I know a secret way in_!”

“ _Yeah, you know who says ‘I won’t get caught’? Mer who get caught all the time! And what do you mean ‘secret way in’_?”

“ _I mean this_!”

 _“…oh…_ ”

“ _It’s okay, Sourgills, you can say that I was totally right, and you should never disagree with me ever and that_ -”

“ _Don’t get ahead of yourself, kelp brain, we still haven’t made it inside yet_.”

“ _Oh, we’ll get inside, and then you’ll have to spend all your summers telling everyone how sad you are you can’t be as wonderful as me_.”

“ _Yeah, I’ll just have to rely on my modesty to make friends_.”

“ _What, are you saying I can’t be modest? Come on, Derek! I’m the most modest person there is! Derek? **Derek**!_ ”

* * *

“ **DEREK**!”

He wakes with a jerk, fins thrashing in an attempt to get away from whatever is holding him down, gills constricting to get in more water, he needs to breathe, _he can’t breathe_ …!

“Easy, easy…” The voice is soothing despite the piercing pain in his temple, the hands on his skin gentle enough to avoid aggravating the way his entire being feels flayed open. His head automatically turned towards the sound. “Come on, big guy, you need to breathe for me, you can do it…”

His head shakes in the negative, gills struggling and failing, he can’t, he can’t,  _he can’t, he can’t, **he can’t** …_

“Yes, you can. I’ll show you, okay?” The water moves around him and then there is warmth pressed all along his side, a plethora of arms holding him close and keeping him from drifting away. “Just like this, okay? Breathe in for me…”

It’s a raspy, choking inhale, but he does it.

“…and out, slowly. Go slowly.”

It burns and claws at his chest, but the air leaves his lungs and rattles past his gills.

“That’s it. You did so well. Now, again, okay? In…”

It barely makes it to his lungs, but he keeps the air in, keeps it there and waits for…

“…and out, just like that. That’s good, you’re doing so good. Breathe in again for me, big guy…”

So it goes, for an indeterminate amount of time, as Derek tries to regain his equilibrium. He tries to wrap his mind around what happened, but every time he gets close to understanding, it seems like something in his mind shrinks away and he needs to lean into the warmth holding him as he fights to breathe again.

After a wave, two, an entire tide going in and out, Derek opens his eyes to see Stiles looking down at him with an expression of fear that he’s too slow to wipe away as Derek extracts himself from the Aquid’s tentacles and gets his body right side up.

“Wha- what happened?” Derek leans against an outcropping, both grateful and ashamed that Stiles’ hands haven’t left him, that he is still close enough that Derek can still feel the warmth of his skin.

“You somehow managed to react with the magic I was casting, and it knocked you halfway across my home.” Stiles seems just as jittery as Derek is, his hands flexing like he’s trying to keep from reaching out and his tentacles keep swiping small passes along Derek’s tail.

While it’s flattering, that Stiles seems to be feeling the same pull that Derek is, it’s also a little frightening that he seems to have as little a clue as to what happened as Derek does. It makes him shiver, which in turn draws Stiles closer, the Aquid no longer hiding the way his tentacles are sliding over Derek’s form as if looking for an injury the sea witch cannot see…

“That’s what I get for touching something I really shouldn’t,” Derek quips, trying to lighten the heavy air between them, shaking his head at the small snort that Stiles gives his comment. “It was weird, it was like I was remembering something, something about going somewhere that was against the rules…”

Beside him, almost unknown to Derek, Stiles goes very, very still.

“…but it was odd, what the Aquid with me called me. ‘Sourgills’.” Stiles reaches out and places a hand on Derek’s shoulder, making the Mer look over to him in confusion as he slightly shakes his head. “Nobody has ever called me Sourgills, not even my sisters, so why…?”

“It might have been the magic, messing with your memories” Stiles says, but something in his voice is…  _off_. Like a tone a parent might use to placate a small child. “I’m sure you’ve done plenty of things against the rules as a kid…”

“No, I haven’t…” Derek tries not to let that information embarrass him when Stiles gives him this absolutely  _fond_ look, like he was an otter that did a particularly clever trick. “I don’t know where this memory came from, but I just know that it’s part of what everyone is keeping from me…”

“What do you mean?” Now Stiles is the one who looks skittish, removing his hands from Derek’s form and taking his warmth with him. Derek bites down on the whimper that wants to escape him and focuses instead on the need to talk to someone who isn’t under some kind of curse.

“My mother and Deaton… it’s almost like they know something I’ve forgotten or are expecting me to remember something I don’t…” Derek runs a hand through his hair as he tries to gather his thoughts. “It’s like… Deaton keeps watching me like he expects me to grow another head and my mother… The stress of whatever kind of secret they’re keeping is making my mother fade by the day and I  _need_  to know what they’re keeping from me and why everyone is magicked to keep them from telling me!”

“And you thought that going to the Land Above would help you find the answers?” Stiles is now looking at him with an expression that cannot be called anything less than  _hungry_ , which makes an odd shiver travel the length of Derek’s tail. “You didn’t think that I might be the one that cast the spell?”

“No, I know that you wouldn’t do that. Don’t ask me how I know, I just  _do_.” Derek rubs at his chest, the old ache flaring up again, a sensation of both missing and not missing something important hitting him all the harder due to them talking about this. “It’s the same feeling that tells me that there is something out there for me, something that keeps pulling me toward the Land Above, calling me to the Shore.”

Stiles’ throat works like he’s trying to say something, but in the end, he simply holds the bottle up, a light purple glow covering the contents inside.

For the first time since he had this idea, Derek… hesitates. The last time he tried to interact with Stiles’ magic, he was thrown across a cave and had that strange memory implanted into his brain.

Stiles doesn’t look surprised, although he can’t hide the disappointment quick enough that Derek misses it, but Stiles is already moving the bottle away before he can apologize for his reaction.

“It’s alright, you were hurt the last time that you tried to touch my magic, although I’m pretty sure it was because it was trying to protect itself from something that might have damaged the spell-”

Derek doesn’t know who’s more surprised when he snatches the bottle out of Stiles’ hand, but it’s a little funny how quickly Stiles’ jaw drops when he downs the contents in one long swallow.

He doesn’t have long to pay attention to that, because almost as soon as the last of the potion makes it down his throat, he’s finding it hard to breathe again and it seems like he’s having a difficult time swimming, his tail feeling somehow like it’s going in two directions instead of one…

“Thetia take it, Derek!” Stiles’ voice sounds so far away (and strangely… wavy?) even as Derek can feel strong arms wrap around him and pull him upwards toward where he had seen the sun flickering into the cave, the light darker than he thought it was a moment ago. “You were supposed to wait until I explained everything! I really could do without you-”

Stiles’ voice cuts off then, because for the second time in as many tides, Derek loses consciousness.


	7. The Human King

_"I swear, you are going to get me **banished**  one of these days!”_

“ _Aw, don’t be like that, Sourgills! Like the Queen is going to banish her own son! Besides, I’m pretty sure she already knew that the whole thing was my fault._ ”

_There is the impression of a smile, more a smirk, this time. A feeling of fond exasperation follows, causing Derek to try to focus past the fog that seems to always follow him into these… are they really memories, or just an illusion like Stiles had claimed..?_

“ ** _You think_** _? I don’t know anyone else who hates Harris enough to make his hair the color of slug slime._ ”

“ _You mean the only person who's **clever**  enough to do it_ _._ ** _E_** ** _verybody_** _hates that kelp brain._ ”

“ _I don’t know why you let him get to you so much_.”

“ _It’s just that… some of the things he says when I’m held back…_ ”

“ _What does he say_?”

“ _Whoa, cool your waves and put away the killer shark glare! It’s nothing, forget I said anything._ ”

“ _I am the Crown Prince of Pacifica and if Harris has been harassing you thinking that he could get away with it, I’m going to show him-_ ”

“ ** _Derek_** _! It’s nothing like that! He’s just been saying some stuff… saying some stuff about… about my mother._ ”

“ _…I’m going to kill him._ ”

“ _What! No! Derek, where are you going?!? Derek, come back here! Derek!_ ”

_A broad hand grips his arm suddenly, more solid than anything else in this place half between awareness and sleep, pulling Derek around until he is face to face with-_

* * *

Derek jerks awake with a gasp, drawing in greedy breaths of air, a sharp pain once more settling in his chest as blinks the water out of his eyes.

He’s pushing himself upright despite the sudden flash of nausea, his body feeling like one giant bruise again, and the headache that had only just faded is making its home behind his right temple, so he can be excused for taking a few waves to realize that he’s breathing in  _air_  instead of  _water_ …

It’s also around that time that he realizes that he’s spread out on a sandy beach, part of the reason that his body feels so sore. He’s also completely naked, two legs in the place of where his tail used to be attached.

Now, Derek knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep his tail on his journey to the Land Above, and Stiles’ potion would give him the legs that Humans needed to make their way around, but it was a whole lot different between thinking about it and  _actually seeing_  it come to be.

It also explains why the panic that gripped him the first time he had been hit with Stiles’ magic is gone; he had an idea of what would happen, so it wasn’t as much of a shock this time around, although there  _is_  a sense of unease at the fact that he cannot see Stiles anywhere along this beach.

Hoping that Stiles has not abandoned him to the cold and wind and instead has simply gone looking for some help, Derek decides to distract himself by examining his new limbs.

Reaching out to run a hand along one of his legs, Derek chuckles a little at the feeling, the small amount of hair covering it an interesting texture against his fingers. His hand travels further up and he gets another surprise when he widens his legs to see if the hair covers the entire extremity:

He has a strange tentacle between his limbs, slightly smoother and warmer than his normal genitals, its sensitivity making him wonder why Humans did not have protective pouches to keep them in as the barest brush seems to send an interesting, but not unpleasant, spark throughout his entire body…

So intrigued by his new appendage and the sensations that he’s experiencing, Derek doesn’t realize that he has company until he hears someone coming over the sands right in front of him, their voice muttering along ahead of their feet.

“I  _really_  hope that you’re awake now and not just lying splayed out on the sands like some sort of cor- Holy Mother of all the Oceans and Seas!”

Derek’s head jerks up at Stiles’ voice and his mouth drops open at the sight of a long, lean body and leagues of pale skin that is still decorated with the speckled coloration that Stiles carried as an Aquid. Stiles turns on his heel, showing Derek his back.

His new genitals seem to like what he sees as well, because it gives a little twitch in his hand, making Derek let out a soft gasp that has Stiles turning toward him in concern before pulling his gaze away again with a muttered curse.

His legs are slightly smaller than Derek’s own, muscled and lean as the rest of him, and his shoulders look broad and strong; Derek can’t see if Stiles has the same kind of tentacle as he does, because the sea witch is determinedly facing away from him, but that does show off a rather nice backside to Derek’s gaze…

It makes his genitals twitch again and stiffen in his grasp, Derek’s gasp is slightly louder as well as longer this time, which in turn makes the muscles in Stiles’ back tense.

“While I  _did_  say that you could explore your new body when I first talked about all of this, I would really appreciate it if you didn’t do it  _now_ , where anyone could walk up on you. I need to be more worried about the fact that you were knocked unconscious again instead of-”

Stiles cuts himself off and runs a hand over his face in a move that seems to drain all the tension in his body, his shoulders dropping as if there is a weight on it that is too heavy for him to carry.

Derek removes his hand guiltily, feeling slightly sick that what he was doing was making Stiles so uncomfortable, so much that he seemed unable to even look Derek in the eye.

“I’m not… I’m sorry, I was just…” It was just that the sensations were so new and nice, Derek wasn’t trying to make Stiles feel uncomfortable and with the way that he seemed to be falling for the sea witch despite only spending a few tides with him…

It doesn’t bode well that everything he has done has either upset or made Stiles uncomfortable, and Derek can’t help but think it might have been easier if he simply listened when others told him to stay away from the sea witch.

Stiles mutters something before finally turning around, revealing a pile of cloth in his hands that covers his front. His eyes pointedly look at a spot just over Derek’s shoulder, which just makes the

“It’s alright, I get that it was a lot of new sensations all at once and you got…uh, distracted.” A red flush travels across Stiles’ cheeks and chest, something that Derek finds extremely endearing before he remembers that Stiles is uncomfortable, and he drags his gaze away. “Anyway, I got some clothes and figured we could try seeing if we can get you on your feet.”

Derek nods, his head still turned away and hands far away from the tentacle that started all of this trouble. He listens to the rustling sounds of the clothing as a pair of feet walk up to him and he’s pleasantly surprised by a hand on his chin, gently guiding his face up so that he can meet Stiles’ eyes.

He was half afraid that Stiles would just dump the clothing in his lap and leave him to figure out everything on his own, so he is more than willing to listen when his fellow Aquid speaks.

“I’m not mad at you, Derek, far from it.” Stiles’ voice is as soft and soothing as the waves that flow through his home, making muscles that Derek didn’t realize were tense relax, his body leaning even more into Stiles’ grip. “I just wasn’t expecting to come around the bend and see you… well, exploring your new body like that… after everything that happened.”

The flush is back again, but this time it spreads even further than before. Stiles’s eyes are wide and darting downward like something is drawing them there, making Derek struck with a sudden realization that makes him smile at the Aquid above him:

Stiles wasn’t embarrassed by what he saw, he  _liked_  it.

But if he liked it so much, why did he turn away?

Maybe he thought Derek wouldn’t appreciate him ogling his body?

But why would Derek take pleasure from his perusal of Stiles’ body and not allow Stiles the same courtesy?

Perhaps Stiles has had an unpleasant interaction with a different Aquid-a thought that makes something pinch tight against his chest and Derek bites back a growl-and that made him think that Derek would react the same? They do not know each other all that well, after all…

“I didn’t mind.”

“Hm?” Stiles is now looking at the clothing in his hands, separating them into piles that he either places on Derek’s lap (effectively covering up the strange genitals between his legs) or across his own arm.

“That you were looking at me. That you want to look at me… or, at least,  _wanted_  to look at me.” Derek can feel his own face heating at the end of that confession and he once more dips his head so that he does not meet Stiles’ gaze.

There is a sharp intake of breath beside him, a sudden shifting of sand, and then there is a line of warmth all along his side as Stiles leans close enough for his breath to drift across Derek’s face when he gets close enough to whisper Derek’s name…

“Stiles!”

The Aquid pulls away from Derek with a yelp, leaving Derek to feel wrong-tailed and slightly lightheaded. A clamoring of some sort comes from the same direction the call had come from.

Derek feels another growl building in his throat and he starts to shakily try to make it to his feet before he sees the look on Stiles’ face:

He looks absolutely  _remorseful_ , eyes darting away as soon as he realizes that Derek is looking at him, even as he lets out his own gleeful cry of “Scott!” It echoes across the clearing to where a man is dismounting some sort of creature to run to Stiles and wrap him up in a hug that is uncaring of Stiles’s bareness.

Derek is glad that he is already laid flat, because the stabbing sensation he feels would have surely dropped him. It doesn’t matter if Stiles liked what he saw or not, he was right to turn away. Going by the way the two of them were embracing and talking in tones too low for Derek to hear, it was obvious that the pair in front of him were intimate in the way that Derek had been hoping he and Stiles could be.

Derek lets out a self-deprecating huff as he remembers Erica’s tease of him finding a nice Human to bring back home. Well, it looks like Stiles is way ahead of him in that regard…

“Greetings.” He was so wrapped up in his thoughts, Derek didn’t even realize that the other male had walked up to him. Looking over the boy, Derek can see why Stiles would be enamored with the Human.

He had soft brown hair, wide eyes, and a crooked jaw that bent into an expression of innocence when he smiled, (whereas Derek rarely ever smiled when he wasn’t around his family or his friends) he had hair the color of squid ink, and there were thousands of corals the exact same shade of his eyes.

Yes, it was very clear why Stiles had chosen this one.

“Stiles has told me that you are a friend of his from the Land Below,” the boy says with a smile that, strangely enough, doesn’t reach his eyes as he holds out a hand in greeting. “I am King Scott of the Delgado Kingdom and I have been friends with Stiles for many a year, so anyone he claims as friend can say the same of me.”

Derek so badly wants to refuse the hand being held out to him, wants to get to his feet under his own power, but he can’t for two very important reasons: the first and foremost is that he’s not sure he _can_ get up on his own, and the second…

The second is that Stiles is looking between the two of them with such an expression of hope and nerves that Derek would feel like a right kelp brain if he refused something that was obviously so important to him.

So, setting aside both his pride and his feelings, Derek accepts the hand that King Delgado offers him, holding the clothing in front of himself so that there is no unwanted baring of skin. He only sways a little before his legs seem to seamlessly understand what they need to do, and he steadies himself enough to stand without leaning too much on Scott.

Who, apparently, is also a  _King._

Is there  _nothing_  Derek can do better than this boy? He is merely a Prince, albeit a Crown Prince, but this child has already made himself a  _ruler_!

Mentally shaking his head, Derek chides himself for acting so uncouth when he has barely known Stiles for a twofold of the tides changing, and he has not made any declaration of his intentions.

Not that it would have done him any good…

Giving his head a  _real_  shake this time, Derek bows as well as he’s able to in his current situation and responds with, “Greetings, King Scott. I am Derek of the Hale pod, son of Talia, and Crown Prince of the Waters of Pacifica. Thank you for welcoming me to your kingdom and I return your well wishes with all the strength of the Summer Tide.”

He grew up with manners, alright? You give a fellow royal the proper greeting no matter how you feel about them in the moment, for there are those that would take a minor insult and turn it into a call for war.

The King, for his part, does not take offense as he stares opened mouthed at Derek the entire time through his customary greeting, and still stares for a few moments afterward. Derek turns his gaze to Stiles, who is staring at him as well, but he’s wearing that same fond look he wore in his cave before blushing and getting to work on some sort of fastening at the front of his clothes.

Which just serves to remind Derek that he is, in fact, still nude and that there seems to be some sort of Human custom that is touchy about the nakedness of a person.

He pulls his hand back from King Scott so that he can get to work on his own clothing, which seems to shake the man out of his stupor, and the King finally gets around to how he managed to be on the shoreline the same time that Stiles and Derek surfaced from the Lands Below.

“I had just been filled with an urge to go riding, which you know is something that I don’t really like to do more than I really have to, seeing as the horses don’t really like me all that much--here, that goes the other way ‘round-”

Derek corrects his garment while Stiles chimes in from where he is petting said ride, “It’s because Roscoe can smell that you’re afraid of him, Scotty! You just need to relax around him and you’ll be fine!”

“It’s a bit hard to relax around an animal that nearly bit my fingers off!”

Stiles just laughs at this and Derek clears his throat in an attempt to get the story back on track, which causes King Scott to start guiltily as he gives Derek an abashed grin.

“Anyway, I managed to saddle Roscoe without the beast biting off any important parts, probably because he knew that I was heading over here in the hopes of seeing you-”

“Aw, is that true, big guy? Where you so happy to see your favorite Aquid that you held off nibbling at the King’s toes?”

Derek chuffs out a snort, he can’t really help it; the sight of Stiles nuzzling at some large beast that looks like it could crush him easily was too adorable not to coo at.

King Scott gives him a knowing look before putting his hands on his hips and exclaiming, “You know, he’s supposed to be  _my_  horse!”

“You have  _thousands_  of horses, Scotty! This one is mine, he likes me better!”

Derek can’t help it, he lets out an honest to Poseidon laugh at hearing that. The pout on Stiles’ face just made the whole thing too ridiculous, and when he settles down enough to meet the pairs’ eyes again, he finds both staring at him in matching astonishment.

“What?” Self-conscious at the attention, Derek runs a hand down the clothing he was given, worried that he had somehow managed to scruff them up in some way despite just finishing putting them on.

“Nothing!” Stiles interjects just as King Scott is opening his mouth, giving his friend a look that Derek can’t read. The King huffs at Stiles, his head shaking like this is something he has to deal with on a constant basis. “It’s just that… you look different when you smile. Not a bad different! Just… you know, different.”

Stiles is blushing again, and Derek is pretty sure that he is as well, but thankfully King Scott saves them both by clapping his hands together and announcing, “Alright, now that everyone is dressed and upright, why don’t we make our way back to my castle? There is much that you and I need to discuss, Stiles, and so much that I want to ask of you, Derek! What do you say?”

After a quick glance Stiles’ way, Derek nods at the question and makes his stumbling way to where the animal King Scott rode in on is waiting, where Stiles takes one look at the beast and then turns to his King with a disbelieving snort that immediately draws attention.

“How are we going to get back to the castle? I know Roscoe is a hell beast when he wants to be, but I sincerely doubt he could carry all three of us.”

“Well, it seems like Derek is still getting used to his legs, so I thought that he could ride, and we could walk back-”

“If you are walking, then I am walking.” Derek directs his statement to Stiles, pleased at the surprised blush that he can see forming. He ignores the way that King Scott raises a brow at his claim.

He may be having a bit of a problem walking, despite his legs seeming to know how to balance without much input from him, but he is not going to ride on some beast while he makes Stiles walk however long it is to this ‘castle’ place.

Derek’s feelings must show plainly on his face, because Stiles is quick to suggest that King Scott simply ride back as he rode in while Stiles and Derek walk beside him.

“What if his legs give out and he falls?” The King’s face is twisted in an expression of worry, and Derek would be touched if his tone did not make feel like he was merely a summer old.

“Then I’ll catch him.” Stiles response makes Derek feel a little better, sending his fellow Aquid a smile before continuing, “He also happens to be right there, so if you have any other concerns, why don’t you just ask  _him_?”

With that last comment, Stiles crosses his arms and turns so that his complete attention is on Derek, a tilt to his brow that dares anyone to make a comment on what he just said.

“Well, Derek? Do you feel up to walking to the castle? I know the transformation was a bit jarring, and it would be perfectly understandable if you wanted to take a break before doing anything else, so if you want to rest for a few-”

“I can walk.” Derek insists, half to cut off the stream of words that he is starting to realize is Stiles’ way of showing that he’s nervous, and half because he knew that if they did not get moving soon, he would certainly fall flat on his face.

Scott still looks like he wants to argue, but resigns himself to their verdict with a heavy sigh. He swings himself up to the beast he rode in on, giving Stiles a look that has a deeper meaning than Derek can decipher, because Stiles is almost immediately glaring back at him and mouthing something that suspiciously looks like ‘Later’ before turning back to Derek with a grin.

“I’m glad that your legs aren’t giving you any trouble, I was a little worried with what had happened before…”

“I’m sure that was my own fault, after all,” Derek insists. Stiles’s theory of his magic trying to protect him seemed much more plausible after he felt the gentler effects of the potions transformation of his Human form.

His quip about the sensation still being one that he’d rather not repeat any time soon has Stiles throwing back his head in laughter, the sound seeming to travel the entire length of his frame before making it to his mouth.

“It takes a bit to get used to, trust me on that.” Stiles’ expression seems to suddenly get serious with his next question, even drawing King Scott’s attention from the terrain around them, “Did you… was there anything different when you woke up this time?”

Derek debates with himself for only a moment. He nods and tells them of the memory of wanting to protect someone, a faint shadow of movement to go along with the memory, which leads to another one of those strange looks. Only this time it’s Stiles that glances at King Scott, and the younger man rolls his eyes back at him.

The exchange lasts for maybe a few moments, but Derek is once more reminded of the fact that these two seem to be a lot closer than mere friends. While it would make sense, that Stiles would find company in the Land Above when the rest of the inhabitants of their home simply fear him on a good day, it sours Derek’s mood to see the easy way Stiles and King Scott interact when he still has a hard time speaking to Stiles the way he would like to.

Sighing, Derek simply keeps quiet for the rest of the journey, allowing the conversation between the pair beside him to flow over his head like a soft current, instead focusing on his feet and keeping them under him on the uneven path.

He’s made himself look the fool in front of Stiles far too many times today.


	8. Revelations and Rumors

It is not long before the conversation between Stiles and King Scott dims down to a long pause that has Derek looking up to make sure that there was not a question asked that he missed.

What greets him is a large growth, seeming to be made of twisted coral in a deep grayish color that Derek has seen on a few sunken Human ships, barring their way. King Scott has gone to speak to someone who seems to be standing guard by it, and Stiles looks in the same direction before he notices that Derek is watching him.

“Scott had this gate built in between the last time we visited, said that there were talks of raiders and highwaymen on the road, and he wanted his people to feel safe.”

“Does King Scott normally wait until you come to the Land Above to visit his people?” Derek tries not to let the bitterness he’s feeling show. After all, it is not his place to say what King Scott does or does not do, even if he thinks that a King should see to his people more than sporadically.

Then again, Stiles might visit more than he thinks, even though he had seemed so lonely that day in his cave…

A strange expression crosses Stiles’ face, almost as if he’s confused at Derek’s question, before it twists into that unsettling blankness that was there when Derek had bumped into that strange Mer statue he had. “Sorry, I meant when _I_ last visited here. This is the entrance to Scott’s kingdom and I’ve been here so often that I must have forgotten that this is the first time _you_ have been here.”

Frowning slightly, Derek is almost certain that Stiles is lying to him about his visits, or at least not telling the whole story. Yet, before he can make an attempt at figuring out what went wrong, King Scott is calling for them. There are large vehicles dashing past the man that has Stiles letting out an excited holler, his earlier mood all but thrown to the wayside.

“You got us _carriages_? Have I told you lately how much I love you, your Highness?”

“Not lately, but I know you do, anyway.” is the King’s playful answer, making it hard for Derek to determine if what was said was a jest or something that Stiles meant in all seriousness simply made to seem like a joke. However, before he can make himself ask the question, the King is continuing with, “I, however, did not ask for these. They were sent by my mother and she asks that we stop surprising her like this, as she only has so much smelling salts on hand.”

“Well, this really isn’t my fault.” Stiles retorts, climbing easily into what looks like a rather large rock-hollowed out and covered in what looks like the same kind of cloth that Derek is wearing-being pulled by a pair of the beasts King Scott is riding. “I _had_ thought that Derek would wait until downing a potion that sent him halfway across my home, but he was determined to make me lose nearly ten years off my life! Blame _him_!”

“It really _wasn’t_ his fault.” Derek agrees, standing as tall as his unsteady legs will allow and making sure that he meets the King’s eyes as he continues, “Stiles is correct in saying that it would have been wiser if I waited to try the potion he made for me. I don’t know what came over me that made me drink it after the first… attempt.”

Alright, so that last part is a lie, but he’s not going to admit to a man that Stiles might be involved with that he downed an unknown and slightly volatile potion because he couldn’t bear the look of disappointment on Stiles’ face. Even if King Scott could understand wanting Stiles to be happy, Derek was pretty sure that he would have an issue with someone else having thoughts about his Consort.

Pulling himself into the ‘carriages’, Derek nonetheless is surprised by the laughter that King Scott lets out at his words, as well as what sounds like the phrase, ‘Well, at least _that_ hasn’t changed…’ before the King is mounting his horse and leading the way through the strange ‘gate’ with a click of his tongue.

What was that supposed to mean…?

Settling himself in his seat, Derek happens to catch Stiles looking at him with a… strange expression. It looks to be a mixture of fondness and sadness, like what Derek said or did made some sort of memory come up, and not a very happy one at that.

“Stiles?”

The Aquid shakes his head and quirks his lips into a smile that only makes Derek feel even worse as Stiles says, “It’s nothing. I… just don’t usually have someone who takes the blame for things. Most people know me better than that, and know that whenever someone says something goes wrong, it is usually my fault!”

The last bit is said with a chuckle that doesn’t really sell the playfulness that Stiles is trying to portray, but Derek decides not to mention it if Stiles is trying so hard to convince him that he’s fine. Instead he waves his hand in a dismissive action and states, “It _was_ my fault, though.”

Stiles quickly shakes his head in the negative and argues, “If I had been paying attention, I would have immediately dispelled the potion and waited until I had done a few tests before letting you drink it. That is on me.”

“Stiles, you couldn’t have known that I was going to drink a potion that sent me across your cave after simply touching it.” Derek grins a little at the rolled eyes Stiles gives him. “That is my fault and I should be the one apologizing to you for that.”

“You _should_ apologize.” Stiles’ gaze is suddenly more intense than it was before, and Derek can’t seem to be able to look away. “You… you really scared me, _especially_ after how you reacted to my magic the first time. I would hate myself for all the seasons if anything happened to you because of me.”

“Because I’m your Prince?” Derek doesn’t know why he asks that in a whisper, but he feels like any louder will break the fragile moment that they’re in.

Stiles doesn’t answer right away, his eyes darting over Derek’s face like he’s looking for something, but then he takes a quick breath before blurting out, “No. It’s not because you’re my Prince.”

“Then why…?”

Stiles eyes are wide and searching, seemingly able to pull Derek in quicker than any whirlpool, and he doesn’t know when they started moving toward each other, but it seems like the small space in the carriage has been cut in two when Derek reaches up to cup Stiles’ face in his hand.

“Why does it matter to you if I get hurt?”

“Derek…” Stiles’ tongue comes out to wet his lips and Derek is struck with the sudden urge to follow that tongue’s path with his own, claim Stiles’ mouth in a kiss that binds them both and keep this intriguing, _confusing_ Aquid with him forever.

“ ** _Derek_** …”

He is just moving to give into this strange desire when the carriage suddenly halts with a jarring motion that jerks Derek forward too fast to stop. It causes his forehead to meet with Stiles’ in an aching thump as King Scott’s voice rings out with a cheery, “We’re here!”

Once more, Derek is forced to watch as Stiles pulls away from him with an expression that says he regrets letting himself get close to Derek and once more, Derek must watch as Stiles immediately puts distance between the two of them. He nearly trips as he clamors out of the carriage as fast as he possibly can.

Derek takes a moment to rub at his sore forehead and try to get his breathing under control before following him. He exits just in time to cut off the conversation that the King and Stiles are having, causing the King to send him look that says Stiles told him _exactly_ what happened in the carriage.

That look causes Derek to pause with one foot still on the small steps leading up to the carriage, certain that the King is only a moment away from banishing Derek from his kingdom, banishing him from _Stiles_ , for all the waves of the Ocean’s tides.

Stiles nudges King Scott after only a moment and says something in a low tone that has the King sighing. He motions Derek forward with a stilted, “The castle is just ahead” before placing a hand on the curve of Stiles’ back to lead him on.

Derek sighs heavily and follows, unsure if he should be grateful that Stiles’ potion is just for the one day, since all he seems capable of doing is making one mistake after the next.

“Are you the merman?”

Jumping slightly and nearly falling over himself due to his still rather shaky grasp on how his legs work, Derek snaps his gaze to a young woman on his left that is staring at him like she half expects him to flip around like a dolphin.

“What?”

A light blush dances across her cheeks as she nervously tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Apologies, it is just that talk travels quickly, more so when the King decides to take his steed out to the ocean’s edge with nary a word to anyone and the only time he seems to is when he has visitors from the Land Below.”

“Visitors? Stiles has brought other Aquids Above before?” Derek doesn’t know why he feels so off balance at finding this out; he is not the first Mer to have dreams of the Land Above before, surely, and it is not as if he has the right to tell Stiles what he should or should not do with his magics.

Yet, Stiles had seemed so lonely and had acted like there had been several tides since he had seen another Aquid before. If he was bringing one Aquid after another Above to meet this King and his people, why act like Derek’s presence was some sort of rare gift?

There is another nervous tuck of the hair before the woman quickly states, “I do not know, it was before I journeyed here, and I have only heard a few rumors of it. Some say that the king knows of a sea witch that can pull an army from the very seafoam, while others say that it is a merman that grew lonely wandering the waves Below and asked for legs to travel the world above him, only to fall in love with the King and swear to be by his side for all time.”

Derek tenses at the reminder of his own thoughts concerning the nature of the relationship between Stiles and the King, but cannot wander far down that road in his mind, as the woman continues to speak and seems to be warming up to her excitement at finding out the secret.

“I don’t know what is truth and what is fanciful tales, so I thought to wait by the roadside and see for myself when the King returned from his ride.” The blush from earlier comes back again as she gives Derek a quick once over before pointedly looking away. “I have to say, if the rumors that a merman fell in love with the King hold any fact to them, then the man is a simpleton to spurn the merman simply because he is foolishly devoted to that Argent woman.”

“Considering that neither you nor I know of how deeply the King loves his Queen, or if their joining includes the merman in your tales, I don’t believe it is our place to guess at whether the man is a simpleton or not.”

Ignoring the woman stammering out her apologies, Derek instead wonders why his first reaction was to defend the King so fiercely; he can’t say it is only because Stiles is fond of the man, but more that the King has welcomed him into his kingdom and treated him fairly, this misunderstanding concerning Stiles notwithstanding.

“Derek!”

Startling for the second time in as many waves, Derek jerks his head around to see Stiles staring down at him from the hill he had been about to crest, the King showing up only a moment later. The pair wear matching frowns as Stiles asks, “What are you doing?”

“I was just talking to-”

But when Derek turns to introduce them, the woman is gone, with no upturned sand or retreating figure to say where she might have went. Derek is a little thrown at the abruptness of her departure, as well as the knowledge that he does not even know her name to look for her.

“Derek?”

Shaking his head, Derek simply states, “Nothing. It was nothing” before hurrying to catch up to Stiles and King Scott. His reassurance does not seem to placate Stiles, who is still looking down into the valley even as Derek stands beside him.

“You said something about a castle?”

That seems to get Stiles’ attention and he is all too happy to explain King’s Scott’s grand ‘building,’ describing it as beautiful as their own coral reefs and twice as tall. The King demurs and states that it is not nearly as impressive, leading to a friendly debate between the two on whether or not Stiles has a tendency to overexaggerate.

Derek decides to follow their lead and ignore the tension that had started in the carriage, the rumors that Stiles has brought Aquid after Aquid up to the Land Above, and the almost unnerving feeling that every step he’s taking is being watched by someone who is _not_ happy that he is here…


End file.
